1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a process and apparatus for ensuring that a digital storage device will only be able to download or play files that were obtained from sources deemed by the manufacturer of the device, or by an overseeing organization, to be acceptable, and, more particularly, to processes and devices able to ensure that the digital storage device does not download, play or display files that were obtained over the Internet from web sites that have not been pre-approved by either the manufacturer of the device or by an overseeing organization.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growing popularity of using the Internet to transfer files in a digital format, there has been increasing concern over the need to protect the intellectual property rights of individuals and organizations to copyrighted materials such as books, music, movies and manuscripts. Once copyrighted materials have been made available in digital format, high quality illegal copies of copyrighted materials can be quickly and indiscriminately made available to others.
Several web sites currently make available for free distribution, unencrypted files of the contents of copyright materials such as books and music. Several of these web sites are maintained with the full consent of the lawful owners of the copyrighted material, because some copyright owners see this as a way to help promote and market their products. On the other hand, there are other web sites that make available copyrighted files without the consent of the rightful owners of the copyright. Generally, it is desirable to allow web sites to distribute lawfully available copies of both unencrypted and encrypted files over the Internet to digital devices while concurrently preventing these digital devices from being able to either play or download illegally available files. One technique that is currently used to address this problem uses encryption to allow only devices with the appropriate encryption key to decrypt a particular file; therefore, when an encrypted file is downloaded from a web site, only the devices for which the file was intended are able to decrypt that file.
Existing encryption techniques are appropriate in the situation where only legal sources have access to specific copyrighted material and precautions have been made to assure that whoever downloads that material can not subsequently distribute the material in an unencrypted format for use, by way of example, on another device able to display, reproduce or play the copyrighted material. I have noticed however, that existing encryption methods do not solve the problem of protecting copyrighted material from unlawful use or reproduction if the copyrighted material is already available in the hands of those who would make it available illegally; such is the case with music files, which are already widely distributed in digital format (i.e., compact discs, commonly known as xe2x80x9cCD""sxe2x80x9d) making it easy for someone to illegally distribute the musical content read from the disc over the Internet.
The fact that the digital content of a file, such as music, happens to be encrypted does not mean that the digital content has been made available with the consent of the rightful owners in the first place; therefore, encryption alone is not sufficient to address this problem of protecting copyrightable material.
It is therefore, one object of the present invention to provide improved processes and apparatus for distribution of files via the Internet.
It is another object to provide processes and apparatus to allow web sites to distribute lawfully available copies of both unencrypted and encrypted files over the Internet to digital devices, while concurrently preventing these digital devices from being able to either play or download files that are available illegally.
It is still another object to provide processes and apparatus that allow web sites to distribute legally available unencrypted and encrypted files over the Internet while simultaneously preventing digital devices from either playing or downloading illegally available files.
It is yet another object to provide a relatively efficient and foolproof solution that, when incorporated into processes and apparatus during the practice of the principles of the present invention, remedies the problem of protecting copyrightable material from unlawful use, reproduction and distribution by ensuring that a digital storage device will only be able to download or play those files that were obtained from approved sources.
Due to the open architecture of personal computers and the fact that personal computers are currently not covered under the Digital Audio Recording Devices And Media Act, 17 U.S.C. xc2xa71001, et seq., it may be difficult to restrict a personal computer from downloading illegally available material; however, it is still possible from both a technical and legal perspective to restrict non-personal computer digital devices (i.e., non-PC""s) from downloading illegal material either directly from the Internet or from a personal computer. These and other objects may be attained by setting up an approved web site database with a personal computer that is equipped with software that encrypts only those files that are downloaded from web sites listed on that database. In turn, a digital storage device with a personal computer interface only downloads those files that have been appropriately encoded by the personal computer; alternatively, the digital storage device can be allowed to download any file but not be allowed to play or display any downloaded file. Similarly, non-PC digital devices with direct Internet connectivity would be able to only download, play and display those files downloaded from web sites on the Approved Website Database. The present invention may therefore, be practiced regardless of whether the files that are made available on a web site are either in an encrypted or in an unencrypted format.
In the practice of this invention with unencrypted files, digital devices are only able to download files that were made available in unencrypted format with the permission of the rightful owners of the copyrighted content of the material. The only action that is required by the managers of web sites will be to submit their web site to an industry committee as a legitimate source of files containing copyrighted material. This web site is in turn placed on the Approved Web Site Database and can be monitored for compliance with copyright protection laws. Those web sites that make available files without the consent of the rightful owners of the copyrighted material in those files would be denied listing on the Approved Website Database by the industry committee.
When practiced with an encrypted file during downloading, the practice of this invention ensures that web sites provide encrypted copyrighted material with the consent of the rightful owners of that material. The fact that a website happens to have the software necessary to encrypt the copyrighted material does not, by itself, necessarily mean that the web site is making those files available over the Internet legally in the first place. Proper maintenance of the Approved Web Site Database can serve as a way to ensure that digital devices are only able to download encrypted files that were made available with the consent of the rightful owners of the material.